A BinDawood, A Dickinson, A Aytemur, C Howarth, E Milne, M Jones
{"title":"Investigating the effects of tDCS on Visual Orientation Discrimination Task Performance: 'The possible influence of placebo'.","authors":"A BinDawood, A Dickinson, A Aytemur, C Howarth, E Milne, M Jones","doi":"10.1007/s41465-019-00154-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s41465-019-00154-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The non-invasive neuromodulation technique tDCS offers the promise of a low cost tool for both research and clinical applications in psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. However, findings regarding its efficacy are often equivocal. A key issue is that the clinical and cognitive applications studied are often complex and thus effects of tDCS are difficult to predict given its known effects on the basic underlying neurophysiology, namely alterations in cortical inhibition-excitation balance. As such, it may be beneficial to assess the effects of tDCS in tasks whose performance has a clear link to cortical inhibition-excitation balance such as the visual orientation discrimination task (ODT). In prior studies in our laboratory no practise effects were found during 2 consecutive runs of the ODT, thus in the current investigation, to examine the effects of tDCS, subjects received 10 minutes of 2mA occipital tDCS (sham, anode, cathode) between a first and second run of ODT. Surprisingly, subjects' performance significantly improved in the second run of ODT compared to the first one regardless of the tDCS stimulation type they received (anodal, cathodal, or sham-tDCS). Possible causes for such an improvement could have been due to either a generic 'placebo' effect of tDCS (as all subjects received some form of tDCS) or an increased delay period between the two runs of ODT of the current study compared to our previous work (10 minutes duration required to administer tDCS as opposed to ~2 minutes in previous studies as a 'break'). As such, we tested these two possibilities with a subsequent experiment in which subjects received 2 minutes or 10 minutes delay between the 2 runs (with no tDCS) or 10 minutes of sham-tDCS. Only sham-tDCS resulted in improved performance thus these data add to a growing literature suggesting that tDCS has powerful placebo effect that may occur even in the absence of active cortical modulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"4 3","pages":"235-249"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7115888/pdf/EMS85688.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38222832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, Stephanie Fountain-Zaragoza, Arthur F Kramer, Shaadee Samimy, John Wegman
{"title":"Mindfulness and Attention: Current State-of-Affairs and Future Considerations.","authors":"Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, Stephanie Fountain-Zaragoza, Arthur F Kramer, Shaadee Samimy, John Wegman","doi":"10.1007/s41465-019-00144-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-019-00144-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This review examines longitudinal studies of changes in components of attention following mindfulness training. A total of 57 retreat studies, non-randomized trials, and randomized controlled trials were identified. Employing the classical taxonomy proposed by Posner and Petersen (1990), outcome measures were broadly categorized based on whether they involved maintenance of an aroused state (alerting), selective prioritization of attention to target items (orienting), or assessed conflict monitoring (executive attention). Although many non-randomized and retreat studies provide promising evidence of gains in both alerting and conflict monitoring following mindfulness training, evidence from randomized controlled trials, especially those involving active control comparison groups, is more mixed. This review calls attention to the urgent need in our field of contemplative sciences to adopt the methodological rigor necessary for establishing mindfulness meditation as an effective cognitive rehabilitation tool. Although studies including wait-listed control comparisons were fruitful in providing initial feasibility data and pre-post effect sizes, there is a pressing need to employ standards that have been heavily advocated for in the broader cognitive and physical training literatures. Critically, inclusion of active comparison groups and explicit attention to the reduction of demand characteristics are needed to disentangle the effects of placebo from treatment. Further, detailed protocols for mindfulness and control groups and examination of theoretically guided outcome variables with established metrics for reliability and validity are key ingredients in the systematic study of mindfulness meditation. Adoption of such methodological rigor will allow for causal claims supporting mindfulness training as an efficacious treatment modality for cognitive rehabilitation and enhancement.</p>","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"4 3","pages":"340-367"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-019-00144-5","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25560055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shenghao Zhang, William C M Grenhart, John F Sprufera, Anne Collins McLaughlin, Jason C Allaire
{"title":"Using Variable Priority Training to Examine Video Game-Related Gains in Cognition.","authors":"Shenghao Zhang, William C M Grenhart, John F Sprufera, Anne Collins McLaughlin, Jason C Allaire","doi":"10.1007/s41465-019-00148-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-019-00148-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Identify mechanisms associated with video-game-related gains in cognitive functioning.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Seventy-nine older adults (Mean age = 72.72, <i>SD</i> = 7.16) participated in a pretest-posttest intervention study. A video game that required four cognitive abilities was developed. The game had two modes: (1) variable priority training (VPT) and (2) single priority training (SPT). After a pretest session, participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks and 'were randomly assigned to either the VPT (<i>n</i> = 42) or the SPT mode (<i>n</i> = 37) for an average of 15.94 (<i>SD</i> = 2.15) one-hour game play sessions. Post-testing was administrated within one week after completion of training.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Time (pretest/posttest) by game mode (VPT/SPT) interactions were examined using Multivariate Repeated Measure ANOVAs. No significant multivariate training effects were observed.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Results suggest that VPT may not be the underlying mechanism responsible for video-game-related gains in cognition. Our results also cast doubts on whether playing video games could lead to cognitive enhancements in older adults.</p>","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"4 3","pages":"274-284"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-019-00148-1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38679212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring the Effects of Mindfulness and Self-Distancing on Chocolate Intake After a Negative State Affect","authors":"Misba Hussain, H. Egan, R. Keyte, M. Mantzios","doi":"10.1007/s41465-020-00181-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00181-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"5 1","pages":"15 - 24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-020-00181-5","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"53192771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Way Forward in Mindfulness and Sustainability: a Critical Review and Research Agenda","authors":"Ute B. Thiermann, W. Sheate","doi":"10.1007/s41465-020-00180-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00180-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"5 1","pages":"118 - 139"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-020-00180-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"53192652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melissa Scagnelli, Francesco Della Beffa, F. Santulli
{"title":"Reading and Comprehension in Adulthood: a Training Programme","authors":"Melissa Scagnelli, Francesco Della Beffa, F. Santulli","doi":"10.1007/s41465-020-00182-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00182-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"5 1","pages":"25 - 34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-020-00182-4","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"53192840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jacky Au, Benjamin C Gibson, Kimberly Bunarjo, Martin Buschkuehl, Susanne M Jaeggi
{"title":"Quantifying the Difference between Active and Passive Control Groups in Cognitive Interventions Using two Meta-Analytical Approaches.","authors":"Jacky Au, Benjamin C Gibson, Kimberly Bunarjo, Martin Buschkuehl, Susanne M Jaeggi","doi":"10.1007/s41465-020-00164-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s41465-020-00164-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite promising reports of broad cognitive benefit in studies of cognitive training, it has been argued that the reliance of many studies on no-intervention control groups (passive controls) make these reports difficult to interpret because placebo effects cannot be ruled out. Although researchers have recently been trying to incorporate more active controls, in which participants engage in an alternate intervention, previous work has been contentious as to whether this actually yields meaningfully different results. To better understand the influence of passive and active control groups on cognitive interventions, we conducted two meta-analyses to estimate their relative effect sizes. While the first one broadly surveyed the literature by compiling data from 34 meta-analyses, the second one synthesized data from 42 empirical studies that simultaneously employed both types of controls. Both analyses showed no meaningful performance difference between passive and active controls, suggesting that current active control placebo paradigms might not be appropriately designed to reliably capture these non-specific effects or that these effects are minimal in this literature.</p>","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"4 2","pages":"192-210"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8320766/pdf/nihms-1574693.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39266762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“And Now Close Your Eyes or Lower Your Gaze”: Exploring Novice Meditators and Their Attentional Processes During Meditation","authors":"Isabella Sprawson, Jeffrey Wood, M. Mantzios","doi":"10.1007/s41465-020-00175-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00175-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"4 1","pages":"369 - 378"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-020-00175-3","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"53192406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Berna A. Sari, G. Tarman, Busra Ozdogan, B. Metin, N. Derakshan
{"title":"Working Memory Training in Relation to Anxiety, Stress, and Motivation","authors":"Berna A. Sari, G. Tarman, Busra Ozdogan, B. Metin, N. Derakshan","doi":"10.1007/s41465-020-00176-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00176-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"98 1","pages":"446 - 452"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-020-00176-2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"53192444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Placebo Brain Stimulation Affects Subjective but Not Neurocognitive Measures of Error Processing","authors":"M. van Elk, E. Groenendijk, S. Hoogeveen","doi":"10.1007/s41465-020-00172-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00172-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice","volume":"4 1","pages":"389 - 400"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s41465-020-00172-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"53192372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}